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The Shuttleworth Collection

The Collection was founded in 1928 by Richard Shuttleworth, he collected several vintage cars and aeroplanes in his lifetime, restoring them all to working condition. Richard was tragically killed during WWII but his mother Dorothy set up the Shuttleworth Trust to maintain his collection and educate the public in aviation and automotive transport.

The collection opened its doors to the public for the first time in 1963 with more than 40 aircraft and 30 vehicles, however the principles today are still the same, to maintain the collection in FULL working order for the education of others.

The collection has many old aircraft including a Blériot XI of 1909 and a Blackburn Monoplane Type D of 1912 moving on to a Sopwith Pup, and an English Electric Wren winner of the economy competition in the 1923 aircraft trials, and of course the famous Red DH88 Comet winner of the England to Australia 1934 air race. The collection also has many aircraft from the 30’s with some examples in the form of the Hawker Hind, Avro Tutor (the only surviving example in the world) and Hawker Tomtit and not to be out done we move on to the 40’s with a Spitfire and Sea Hurricane. The ‘modern’ age sees a DeHavilland Chipmunk of 1946 and a Percival Provost of 1955. These are just some of the aircraft within the collection as there are just too many to list.

The vehicle collection is just as impressive with the likes of a Panhard Levassuer of 1898, a Baby Peugot of 1902, Fiat Topolino of 1937, a Fordson WOT 2H of 1943 and Triumph Type SD motorbike of 1924 to name a few.

A view in the workshop is a must to see some of the aircraft going through maintenance work and restoration work. On my visit sections (10cm x 10cm) of several fabric covered aircraft were available with just a donation box in place. So a section of Blackburn B2 silver doped fabric now has a new home!

This is all topped off with a very nice restaurant with tasty cooked meals and snacks.

The collection can be found at Old Warden Aerodrome, Biggleswade SG18 9UZ and is well worth a visit.